DSS.950302(=#14) Minutes, Dead Sea Scrolls Class, 2 March 1995
University of Pennsylvania, Religious Studies 225, Robert A. Kraft
Recorder: Jarid Lukin (solo)
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For the continued discussion and understanding of various debates over the scrolls, a broader picture of the historical context of the scrolls, and of Judaism and early Christianity, is important:
2000 bce
Abraham and "the Patriarchs"
1500
Moses and Joshua
1000 David
Solomon (builds Jerusalem Temple)
"The Divided Kingdom (North and South)"
Fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria, around 721
Fall of Southern Kingdom (Judah) to Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylonia in 587/586, with destruction of the Temple
(Persian Empire; "Second Temple" established around 520)
500 / \
|
330 Alexander the Great, Greek World Empire
|
165 Hasmonean/Maccabean Revolt (against Greek Seleukids)
unrest -- "Hasidim," DSS group, etc.
|
63 (End of Hasmonean/Maccabean Independence)
|
2nd Temple Period (about 520 bce - 70 ce)
[0 bce/ce] |
30 Joshua/Jesus and the beginnings of "Christianity"
Philo |
\ /
70 Fall of Jerusalem ("First Revolt"), Qumran and Masada
Josephus
135 Bar Kokhba and the "Second Revolt" (Murabba'at)
325 Eusebius
Constantine -- Greco-Roman Emperor
Emergence of Classical Judaism
Emergence of Classical Christianity (no longer unrecognized
by the Romans as a distinct religion)
500 ce
How one views the DSS group in relation to their "biblical" and "post-biblical" past, and in relation to the development of "classical (rabbinic) Judaism" as well as early Christianity, has a great influence on the debates over who they were and what their significance may be. Especially controversial are the perceived or imagined lines between the varieties of Judaism in the "second Temple period" and what emerges as "classical Judaism," on the one hand, and what develops into "early Christianity" on the other.